After a full half-year of dominating the marketplace as the lone tablet getting all the attention, Apple's iPad is seeing another rival step up to the tablet plate. Hot off the presses - HP is moving forward with long rumored plans to launch its new "Slate 500" tablet computer.

Much like RIM's recently announced BlackBerry-esque tablet, the Slate will be heavily promoted to business customers and sell for a retail price of $799. While HP's dedicated page for the Slate hasn't gone live yet, the news is out and sources are telling Reuters some of the must-have details about the HP Slate 500.

Carol Hess-Nickels, director of business notebook marketing at HP, emphasized the Slate's business utility. She expects retail, healthcare and insurance companies, among others, to build custom applications that take advantage of the device's portability.

The Slate runs Windows 7, has an Intel Atom processor, sports an 8.9-inch, multi-touch-enabled screen, weighs 1.5 pounds, has 64 gigs of storage, front and rear cameras, a USB port, a digital stylus pen, up to five hours of battery life per charge, Wi-Fi access, but "no built-in capability to connect to high-speed cellular networks."